STOCKHOLM : Funding of artificial intelligence and cloud companies in the U.S., Europe and Israel is rising after three years of decline and is estimated to hit $79.2 billion by the end of the year, venture capital firm Accel said in a report on Wednesday. That is a 27 per cent increase over 2023's $62.5 billion, and investments involving generative AI companies represent about 40 per cent of the 2024 figure. "The tectonic shift we are seeing with AI right now is bigger than anything that we